Showing some love

Today during lunch, Buttercup was very upset and I ended up snuggling her on my lap while I ate my food. I offered different things to her to figure out what she wanted (other than snuggles!), and Oliver helpfully offered suggestions like, "Maybe she's teething! Maybe she needs to see a doctor. Does her ear hurt? Does she need a tongue depressor? Maybe her gums hurt. Maybe she just wants some avocado and peanut butter for lunch . . . can I eat her sausage?"

Buttercup wiggled down from my lap and stood next to my leg, crying. And my sweet Oliver did something unexpected -- instead of running off to his room to play, he took it upon himself to figure out how he could help Buttercup. He stood there, on my other side, and asked her question after question ("Do you want to work in my workshop? Do you want to play race cars? Do you want to play construction site?"). She stopped crying and started answering his questions. Then he gently took her by the hand and they sat under the dining room table and talked for about 5 minutes! After their chat, Oliver got up and led Buttercup back to his room to play in his workshop.

While Oliver is about 1000x better with Buttercup than he used to be, this sort of thing almost never happens in our house. So of course I had to take a video of it. Enjoy! :-)

P.S. Have I mentioned how much I love these two??

Pineapple Project, part 3

I'm happy to report that our pineapple project seems to be working nicely!

The leaves aren't looking so hot,














but check this out -- the roots are actually growing!


















Hopefully they'll continue to grow and we'll be able to plant it in about 2 weeks. I think I'm the only one really excited about this, ha ha.

The best reward prize EVER

We've been using a sticker chart with Oliver to reward him for good behavior. He has the opportunity to earn 1 sticker each day, and when he gets 4 stickers, he earns a small reward -- he calls it a "prize" -- usually a $2 or $3 toy from Mardel or Target that either gets broken or lost in a couple of days. He earned his 4th sticker yesterday, so we went to the store to look for a new toy.

Then I thought of something that we could make for him instead of buying a toy . . . something that he would use every day, something that would last for a long time, something that would require a trip to Home Depot (Oliver's favorite store!) . . . We would build Oliver his very own workshop, in his closet!!!

So we went to Home Depot last night and purchased a sheet of peg board, hooks, a piece of scrap lumber that was cut to suit our needs, and 4 table legs + screws. Oliver and Dennis started working on it right after breakfast this morning.



























This is Oliver's closet before:
































And this is Oliver's new workshop!! Can't you just feel the excitement??!



























I'm so happy that we could do this special thing for him!

The gift that keeps on giving

This is Wendy, our very sweet, friendly, and loving cat.














And this is our floor, after petting Wendy for approximately 10 minutes.














Maybe we should get one of those fancy Dyson vacuums?

You Capture: Sky

I decided to try out a blog carnival for the first time, and I chose You Capture from I Should Be Folding Laundry. I'm not the best photographer, nor do I have the best camera, but I enjoy taking pictures! And I hope that I'll get better at it as time goes on.

This week's assignment: sky.

We had some beautiful clouds this week. I hoped that they would bring rain, but all they brought was (a welcome!) relief from the sun. The first two pictures are from Friday.




























And this picture is one that Oliver took about 2 months ago when he was playing with my camera in the back yard. I kind of like his the best! :-)

All we need is just a little patience

Ahh, patience. It is definitely one of my weakest areas. And it is tested daily.

Today was one of those days. I guess it all started last night. Ephesians 4:26b says, "Don't let the sun go down on your anger," and for good reason -- I went to bed grumpy, and I woke up even grumpier. Oliver fed off of my grouchiness this morning, and as soon as breakfast was over, he started picking fights with his sister. That led to Oliver getting three time outs before 8:30 this morning (almost unheard of these days), despite my efforts to get us out of the house as soon as possible. His attitude was better at the playground, but as soon as we got back home, he started picking on Buttercup again.

Oliver is capable of making good choices, but I guess you can blame me for setting a bad example by being grumpy and short-tempered this morning. If I had woken up in a better mood, maybe things would have been a little bit better.

But you know what? God can overcome all of this. Exodus 4:13-14 says, "Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today . . . the Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still." Of course, that scripture is talking about Moses delivering the Israelites from the Egyptians. But for my life it's translated into me being delivered from my worst adversary -- my temper. To me, it says, "Hey Maria, just chill out and let God take care of it! Be still and know that He is God; sit back and watch Him take charge of the situation."

What an awesome God we have!

And, because I hate to not include pictures of my cuties in my posts, here are a couple from this morning. :-)

E is for Elephant

This is Oliver's first best friend (of the stuffed animal variety, anyway).


















Grandma and Grandpa gave Elephant to Oliver almost 2 years ago, and the two have been almost inseparable ever since.

So, in honor of Elephant and one of Oliver's favorite books, I decided that this week's alphabet lesson would be E is for Elephant!














I wanted to make the craft as cute as possible, so I used this picture from Curious George Learns the Alphabet for the template.


















We usually start with practicing writing on the dry erase board first, but Oliver was SO excited about the craft, and we decided to do that first.
































Then we went to the dry erase board so Oliver could practice writing an E. But by that point, he had lost all of his patience, and he was ready to move on to something else. He did try an E though, and he did a pretty good job!



















Then he said something that I think is pretty smart . . . he said, "Mama, could I just try to make an E with my Lincoln Logs?" So that's what he did. :-)

Daily pictures

I got this idea from a friend's blog -- I made a new blog for daily pictures only. You can see it here, and there is also a link on the right of the blog.

Pineapple Project, part 2

Time for the next step of our pineapple-growing experiment.

I let the crown dry for about 2 days, then I set it in this jar to let the roots grow. We should see some real growth in about 2 or 3 weeks, and then it will be time to plant!

Adventures in Toenail Painting

This afternoon, we were a little bored and Aunt Anna came up with a great idea -- she asked Oliver to paint her toenails. As you can imagine, he was very excited about this.


















At first he was very patient and gentle with the brush strokes . . .


















. . . but then his work got sloppier as he realized that he didn't have to keep the paint on her toenails.














Kind of reminds me of when Anna and I were little girls and would fix our Paw Paw's hair. He never once complained, and neither did Aunt Anna. :-)

H is for Hammer

This week's alphabet lesson is H is for Hammer. Why a hammer, you ask? Well, because Oliver is (still) obsessed with tools, and a hammer was the easiest thing I could think of. :-)




















I didn't have a template for this one either, but I'm pretty pleased with the end result! It was pretty easy -- the most difficult part was tracing Dennis' hammer for our craft. :-)


















Oliver was not interested in thinking of H words or writing on the board. So he wrote two Hs as quickly as he could so we could get started on making our hammer craft.




























Ta da! Looks pretty good, don't you think?


















And here's a cute picture of Tootie, giving me a guilty grin after I caught her writing all over her arm with the marker. Love these kids!

Stepping out of my comfort zone

As a Christian, I'm called to witness to others (Acts 1:8), but I've never felt comfortable doing so. I love talking about Jesus with other believers, but I don't feel comfortable witnessing to non-believers. Seems silly, doesn't it! But God knows all of that. ;-) And this morning He put me in a certain place at a certain time, in order to serve His purpose.

Oliver, Buttercup and I ended up in downtown Austin, at Waterloo Park. We stopped on the walkway underneath the bridge to feed the fish and throw rocks in the canal. I saw very few people there -- some state employees walking on their break, bicycle policemen patrolling the area, and a few homeless people. One of the homeless people, a woman, started walking back and forth near the kids and me. We made eye contact and smiled each time she passed, and I felt the need to say something to her, but kept quiet. Then, on her 3rd or 4th trip past us, she stopped and asked Oliver what he was doing. "Feeding the fish. What are you doing?" he said. She reached into her bag and pulled out a few bread crumbs and offered them to Oliver to feed the fish. I could sense that she needed some help, but that she was either afraid or unwilling to ask for it. She and Oliver talked for a little bit (surprisingly, he did not ask her what her favorite shark is!!), then she seemed to feel more comfortable around us, and started opening up about her story. Her name is "Dee" and she ended up losing her home and family after making a lot of bad choices. I said I would pray for her, and Oliver said that he would like to pray for her, too. She smiled and said that it would make her feel good to know that a sweet little boy was praying for her. :-)

I still wasn't quite sure what to say, but I invited her to our church and gave her some change to make a phone call and some cash for a meal. She thanked me, and said that I was one of the few people who acknowledged her presence, much less let my children brighten her day with their smiles and questions. I hope that my actions spoke louder than any words I could say, and I pray that the next chain of events will direct "Dee" to getting a job and a place to live.

It's really sad to me that so many people choose to ignore instead of trying to help others in need. Sure, it would have been easier to look the other way, but we are all created by God, in His image, and we are all fearfully and wonderfully made. No one on this earth is better than any other person. Any one of us could end up in "Dee's" situation -- on the street, without a roof over our heads. Oliver and I will be praying for her, and I hope you will, too!

Pineapple Project, part 1

I loooooooooove fresh pineapple. I bought 2 from the farmer's market the other day, and I thought that planting one in our yard would be a fun project for Oliver and Buttercup.

After I cut off the top, I soaked it in water overnight to make it easier to remove the lower layer of leaves and leftover pineapple flesh.


















This is what it looks like with the extra stuff trimmed away. I'm going to let it dry for a couple of days, and then we'll plant it. Stay tuned!

Baking with Granddaddy

My dad makes the best bread in the world, and we all eat it up as fast as we can. (Best served fresh out of the oven, topped with a drizzle of olive oil, salt, and pepper. Yum!)



















Oliver got to help out while Granddaddy made a batch of bread the other day. He had his own ball of dough to work with.
































Then he added cinnamon, sugar, raisins, and sprinkles to make cinnamon rolls for himself and Buttercup.














And finally, he added a drizzle of honey before baking. Mmmm!

Playing with water

Yesterday morning, Granddaddy took Oliver to the store to get a new pair of rubber boots. (And here they are, not as macho as Oliver's old boots, but I think he's manly enough to pull off the look.)














While they were gone, Grammy and I sat on the patio and watched Buttercup fill a cup with water from the hose, drink it, sometimes choke on it, toss out the rest of the water, and start over again. It entertained her for at least 10 minutes!

It's funny how kids are so much alike -- I remember Oliver doing the same exact thing about 2 years ago. :-)

Old Friends and New Friends

Yesterday morning, Oliver, Buttercup, and I got to visit with my high school BFFs and Maggie's son at the mall. It was so good to see them again! Jackson brought toys to share and gifts for Oliver and Buttercup -- what a sweet little guy.

Thanks again for meeting us, we had a great time!